Tunnel Fire Snarls Evening Rush at Penn Station

By MICHAEL LUO; Janon Fisher, Jason George and Howard O. Stier contributed reporting for this article.

Published: September 28, 2004

A fire deep underground in one of the tunnels that feed into Pennsylvania Station halted train traffic for hours yesterday and briefly shut down the terminal, causing confusion and long delays for more than 100,000 riders trying to get home for the evening.

The Long Island Rail Road, the biggest user of Penn Station, was unable to operate any trains into or out of the terminal throughout the afternoon into the evening rush. New Jersey Transit and Amtrak riders were stymied as well until limited service was restored about 4 p.m.

Riders cast about for alternatives, shoving their way onto packed subway trains to Brooklyn and Queens, as well as PATH trains to New Jersey, only to find throngs of people clogging the concourses there, all trying to get home as well.

''It's ridiculous,'' said Maurice Vivanco, who tried for more than an hour to get on a train to Elizabeth, N.J., from Newark Penn Station, only to lose out to hordes of others with the same goal. Finally, he decided to try to take a bus.

But some were more sanguine. Richard Stanler, 42, an accountant trying to get home to Merrick on Long Island, decided to try to wait it out at Penn Station in Manhattan.

Sure enough, the Long Island Rail Road finally started running trains out of Penn Station again about 6:30 p.m., and full train service was restored by 8 p.m. New Jersey Transit was also on or close to schedule by 8 p.m. Amtrak was still experiencing delays late last night.

For this morning's rush, Long Island Rail Road officials warned commuters to expect 20-minute delays and said that some trains could be diverted to Hunters Point Avenue in Queens or Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn. Amtrak said it hoped to have all its routes running today. New Jersey Transit said it expected normal service this morning.

Yesterday's problem initially seemed minor, with Amtrak reporting a power surge around 1 p.m. on one of its overhead lines, which provide electrical power to trains, coming into Penn Station from Queens. Somehow, said Marcie Golgoski, an Amtrak spokeswoman, two electrical wires came into contact, causing the surge. As a result, a circuit breaker tripped, knocking out power in all directions and halting trains for all three railroads that use the station: Amtrak, Long Island Rail Road and New Jersey Transit.

But the surge apparently sparked some type of fire inside the tunnel. Firefighters were called to the top of an access shaft on 33rd Street and First Avenue that descends 90 feet to the track bed. Heavy smoke from the shaft had been seeping into New York University Medical Center on First Avenue, fire officials said.

Fire officials characterized the blaze as a transformer fire, while Amtrak officials said it was unclear what had caught on fire.

The delays in restoring service were largely due to the difficulty of fighting the fire, as well as the complexity of fixing electrical problems underground.

The fire caused heavy smoke in the tunnel, said Tim Hinchey, a Fire Department spokesman. Firefighters trying to get at the blaze were slowed by limited visibility as they gingerly descended a narrow spiral staircase to the tunnel floor, he said. They also had to be certain that power had been cut underground.

The fire occurred in a tunnel used by westbound Amtrak and New Jersey Transit trains, one of four tunnels under the East River. New Jersey Transit uses the tunnel to ferry trains back and forth to Penn Station from a train yard in Queens, while Amtrak uses it for its Northeast Corridor trains.

There was some initial confusion because some rubbish above ground on First Avenue caught fire as well, and firefighters thought there might be two separate fires. They later concluded that the rubbish had somehow ignited from embers coming from below.

Officials did not declare the blaze extinguished until 5:30 p.m. By then, more than 150 firefighters had been called to help.

According to the Fire Department, five civilians and one firefighter were taken to hospitals for minor injuries including smoke inhalation, but it was unclear whether the civilians were railroad employees or passengers.

There was one passenger train, carrying about 120 riders, that was inside the tunnel at the time of the fire, Amtrak said, but it was already nearing Penn Station and passengers were safely evacuated.

Firefighters barred people from entering Penn Station for about an hour, although people who were already there were allowed to stay.

New Jersey Transit and Amtrak were able to get power back relatively quickly, although they could not run any trains because the Fire Department had shut down the terminal, transit officials said. But the Long Island Rail Road's predicament was worse because it was unable to get power back for its signals.

As a result, transit officials hurried to set in motion contingency plans, some of which had been crafted for the Republican National Convention.

New Jersey Transit riders were directed to the PATH system, as well as New York Waterway ferries, which honored New Jersey Transit tickets and passes, to get to alternate rail hubs in Hoboken and Newark. Hundreds of customer service representatives were dispatched to those places to help direct traffic.

But the representatives were quickly overwhelmed by the hordes of people waiting for trains in the cramped and overheated stations. One worker, wearing a yellow reflective vest, answered questions rapid-fire from customers before hurrying to help a disabled passenger. A police officer with a bullhorn assured passengers that trains were coming. At 6 p.m., New Jersey Transit officials began offering free shuttle buses, and lines began forming for those.

Madhu Kumar, 25, of Woodbridge, N.J., waited in a long line, only to get to the front and stopped by a New Jersey Transit worker because the bus was full. He shrugged off the aggravation, saying he was used to crowds and lines because he was from India. ''That's O.K.,'' he said.

Meanwhile, at the Jamaica station, where the majority of Long Island Rail Road customers went, there were similar headaches. Riders got off standing-room-only subways only to step onto packed waiting platforms to wait for their trains home.

''It's disgusting,'' said Elizabeth Doug, 29, a retail account executive maneuvering through the crowd. ''There's no organization. You don't know how to get through once your train arrives. You don't know which track is which or how to get there.''

Both commuter railroads were hindered trying to get their service back to normal because they were unable to get to many of their trains. New Jersey Transit, for example, had trains stranded in a yard in Queens. Similarly, Long Island Rail Road officials were forced to operate without trains stuck in another yard west of Penn Station.

Amtrak riders had perhaps the most circuitous routes home. People going to the Albany area were told to go to Grand Central Terminal to take Metro-North Railroad trains to Croton-Harmon, N.Y., where they could transfer to Amtrak trains. For Boston, passengers were told to take Metro-North to New Haven and transfer there.

By the end of the evening rush, most service at Penn Station had been restored, rewarding those who had chosen to wait it out with mostly empty trains.

Photos: Long Island Rail Road passengers massed at the Jamaica, Queens, station. The railroad did not regain use of Pennsylvania Station until 6:30 p.m. (Photo by James Estrin/The New York Times)(pg. A1); Outside Pennsylvania Station, police officers and National Guardsmen sought to keep Long Island Rail Road commuters from entering, and told them to seek other mass transit to get home. ''This happens occasionally,'' one commuter said. ''I'm not stressed out. The blackout was a lot worse.'' (Photo by Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times)(pg. B5)

Chart: ''A Commuters Nightmare''
Penn Station Closes . . .

1 p.m. -- A power surge causes a fire in a tunnel beneath the East River. The power failure leaves two trains stranded in the tunnel. Train traffic is halted.

1:30 p.m. -- Amtrak restores power to the catenary that powers the trains. The two trains are brought into the station.